124 front ball joints

[michael cole]

does anyone know if a new front ball joint for 87 TDT will fit a 95 e320 wagon

[engatwork]

Iirc the gasser lower ball jt is built in to the lower cyl arm.

[Zulfiqar]

the last W124 with the 3.2 litre M104 christened as the E320 did not have replaceable ball joints. you have to buy the entire arm.

The last gasser W124 that could take them was the 300E 2.8 of 1993, all diesels including the 1995 E300D had replaceable joints.

To make sure, turn the wheel and look at the joint/arm boss - if you see that it has 2 projections (shoulders) and has a rectangular shape where the joint is - then its replaceable, If you see a triangle section (like a pizza slice shape) then the joint is cast into the arm boss and is not replaceable.

To test it raise the car on jackstands and take a strong 2x4 and try to move the wheel a bit in and out from the bottom, if you can move it, the joint is bad and requires immediate replacement. The W124/201 ball joints are under pulling stress and can cause very dangerous incidents if the joint lets go.

[michael cole]

well mine let go.fortunately in a parking lot.the mystery is the control arm looks relatively new.the sticker is still on but faded

[engatwork]

How many miles are on it because I'm wondering at what point they fail. The ones on the silver 95 E320 are at 312k miles and are original.

I do have some new ones sitting on the workbench. Just need to get around to replacing them.

[michael cole]

i just bought this car and unfortunately the bad ball joint(s) did not show up in the safety inspection.i was there and the mech had the car on the hoist.a month later it breaks.the shaft of the joint just broke off.429,000 km

[cmcdonnell]

I looked everywhere for Lemfoerder control arms and all I could find were Febi, and MB for about twice the price. I bought the Febi arms, but that was before I saw the date on the broken one. So I guess I will need to be hyper-vigilant about the ball joint boots and check for play more frequently.

[michael cole]

im not passing the buck on this issue.im the guy.im gonna check them yearly now.the boot can be lifted and grease injected very easily

[michael cole]

1 pic worth a thousand words

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by michael cole

1 pic worth a thousand words

wow thats some rust.

[michael cole]

final thoughts and observations:i have now replaced both front LCAs.the left was fine but i did it anyway.both LCAs were date stamped 09/06.thats only 7 years.much less than i thought they would last.install of the new was relatively easy.wish i had a Klann.made do with a much less suitable free rental unit.a note to anyone with febi.the boots on the ball joints pull off ver easily when you position the ball joint pin for insertion in the steering knuckle.a little more stretch or slightly bigger boot would prevent this.im thinking that this problem with engineering is what caused the right ball joint to get into this condition in the 1st place.otherwise the ball joints would probably have a long life.

[Zulfiqar]

if you fancy some tool work - drill the joints and install some zerks